Adzuki bean chili with basmati rice (GF-SF-DF-V)

I have been rather busy this week by developing and writing recipes for my yoga community at Melissawest.com

We’ll have a Mindful Parenting Retreat next weekend, filled with yoga, meditation, reflection and a lot of other fun stuff to do with your kids, like crafting, massaging and journaling.

And of course food! So I rewrote some recipes from my blog and wrote some new ones too, like bite sized chocolate brownies as a request from Trinity, Melissa’s daughter. I will place the recipe on my blog after the retreat, since it is a surprise till then;-)

For today’s post I have this rather yummie adzuki bean chili for you. A warming winter dish, filled with veggies, herbs and spices. I hope you like it!

Adzuki bean chili with basmati rice (2-3 pers)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, in thin slices

2 carrots, chopped in small cubes

2 celery sticks, in same small cubes

1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 15-ounce can of adzuki beans or ½ cup of dried beans soaked overnight and cooked, making 1 ½ cups after cooking

1 15-ounce can of peeled tomatoes

½ -1 can of water

sea salt

1 tbsp cacao powder

1 splash of red wine (optional)

Spicy herb mixture:

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

¼ -1 tsp of chilli powder or 1 dried chilli

2 tsp mixed green herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary)

Grind these herbs and mix them with:

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp sweet paprika

½ tsp piment(Dutch name) or allspice

Make the spicy herb mixture first and set aside.

In a big Dutch oven or heavy bottomed stewing pan heat some olive oil and fry onions slowly about 10 minutes, stir once or twice.

Add garlic slices and fry together 3 more minutes.

Add carrot and celery cubes and fry for 10 more minutes.

Stir in fresh ginger, then the herb mix for 1 more minute.

Then add adzuki beans, peeled tomatoes and water (use the tomato can for extra flavour!) salt, cacao powder and the red wine. Bring to a soft simmer and, with the lid on, simmer for about 30 minutes more.

In the meantime cook your basmati rice and maybe make some guacamole. The 3 go very well together! Also a scoop of yoghurt or creme fraiche for the non-vegans is so good.

Serve hot and enjoy!!